A More Excellent Way Series

b. Peer pressure to conform to the norm.

c. Even personal pressure to come out from your past ¡V your yesterdays! Your yesterdays can be a powerful and positive help to your future!

Randy Morrison said, ¡§You can take a mess and make a message out of it!¡¨

„« We can easily become excusiologists!

„« Because of our fear of failure, our personal insecurity, and fear of other¡¦s opinions we make excuses for a lack of excellence.

Summary: Excuses are the easy route ¡V the wide path. It is a cultural norm ¡V even a church norm.

When something doesn¡¦t go the way we think they should go ¡V we shift blame, or make excuses.

Those who continually choose to make excuses tend to live a lie to themselves because they have never learned to own up to the responsibility of their choices.

III. THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION:

Life is a series of choices, not a series of chances! You are experiencing today the results of decisions made in the past.

A. The quality of the journey is dependent on the moment by moment choices we make:

1. Whenever you take the path of excellence, it can be painful because of the things we have already discussed.

b. The choices we make will probably be an opposing path than your friends and family have taken.

B. This is the reason the church has been on the wide path ¡V

1. A person accepts Christ, has great fervency, and begins to reach their friends with the message of Christ, but notices that the others in the church are not nearly so fervent and assumes that he is becoming too showy and chooses to back off in order to accommodate the church which lacks the desire to excel.

a. It is often considered to be legalistic or a quality reserved only for those who are called to the ministry to be at church whenever the doors are open!

People have a subtle way of taking true spiritual fervency can calling it emotional fanaticism! A polite brand of Christianity is preferred to one that calls the entire congregation to a lifestyle of excellence in service to God for the building up of His kingdom!

CONCLUSION:

How to begin the moment by moment choice for an excellent walk:

1. Read the Word prayerfully asking God to speak to you through His Word!

2. Spend time in prayer ¡V learn how to pray through praying. Learn how to be quiet and loud in the presence of the Lord!

3. Go to church ¡V do more than take it all in! Participate in worship ¡V learn the shout ¡V learn the raising of hands ¡V learn the spiritual song ¡V learn the dance! Take on a ministry in the church!

4. Learn to make every moment of your day an opportunity to excel in the Lord.

You say, I have been doing these things and my life isn¡¦t any more fervent in the Lord ¡V

Do them more! Do them consistently! Do them every day! Do them during break time! Do them on vacation!

Remember, Excellence is journey ¡V not a destination! This is a lifestyle choice made every moment of the day!